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Jailed rival tells of final push to oust Mugabe

THE Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has threatened an escalating campaign of “guerrilla protests” to drive Robert Mugabe from power after a week in which the embattled president used brute force to crush a series of strikes and protests that posed the gravest challenge to his rule since independence in 1980.

In an interview shortly before Tsvangirai was arrested last Friday for the second time in five days and charged with a new count of treason, he predicted economic collapse would force Mugabe to the negotiating table within weeks.

“There’s no fuel, no banknotes, inflation is nearing 300% and the economy is in free fall,” said Tsvangirai, 51, who was expected to spend this weekend in a police cell.

“Pretty soon Mugabe won’t even have the money to pay the army. There is food only to feed the people for a third of the year. As things stand we face